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BT 378 
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THE 



TWO PRODIGILS 



BY THE 

Rev. MARVIN R. VINCENT, D.D. 

NEW YORK 



m&m* 



THE TWO PRODIGALS. 



B V* 

Rev. MARVIN K^ VINCENT, D.D., 

PASTOR OF THE CHURCH OF THE COVENANT. 



NEW YORK. 




NEW YORK: ^ 

Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, 

770 BROADWAY, COR. Oth ST. 



*■$. 



Copyright, 1876, by 
Anson D. F. Randolph & Company. 



ROBERT RUTTER, EDWARD 0. JENKINS, 

BINDER, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPES, 

84 BEEKMAN STREET, N. Y. 20 NORTH WILLIAM ST., M. V. 



THE YOUNGER SON 



THE TWO PRODIGALS. 



THE YOUNGER SON. 

And he raid, A certain man had two sons : 

And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion 
Of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 

And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and 
took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with 
riptous living. 

And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; 
. and he began to be in want. 

And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he 
sent him into his fields to feed swine. 

And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine 
did eat ; and no man gave unto him. 

And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my 
father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger ! 

I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have 
sinned against heaven, and before thee, 

And am no more worthy to be called thy son : make me as one of thy 
hired servants. 

And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way 
off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, 
and kissed him. 

And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and 
in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. 

But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it 
on him ; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet : 

And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it ; and let us eat, and be 
merry : 

For this my son was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is found. 
And they began to be merry. Luke xv. 11-24. 

Human life must have a wonderful and 
solemn interest for the tenants of the heavenly 



6 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

world, if Christ is to be believed. His words 
in this chapter, which lift the vail for a mo- 
ment, give us a glimpse of wondrous festivity. 
Heaven is in a tumult of joy. Angels are ex- 
changing words of congratulation. Surely it 
must be some grand, triumphant crisis in 
God's universe which thus agitates the home 
of the blessed. It is not this. Follow the di- 
rection of the angelic glances, and see them 
resting upon a single son of earth — a man with 
the lines of sinful passion on his face, standing 
amid the wrecks of honor, fair promise, native 
power, yet with his face uplifted to God, say- 
ing, "I have sinned; forgive me." It is this, 
nothing but this, that makes heaven ring with 
praise and pulsate with joy. " There is joy in 
the presence of the angels of God over one 
sinner that repenteth." 

AN UNFILIAL SPIRIT THE STARTING- POINT 
OF THE STORY. 

Both parts of this parable turn on the filial 
relation between God and man. The fact to 
which God attaches the most importance is 



i 



THE YOUNGER SON j 

that man shall be truly His son. All man's 
moral welfare is bound up in this fact. All 
his moral mistakes and failures grow out of 
his forgetting it, and his moral ruin, if he be 
ruined, results from his rejecting it. It is be- 
cause of this that Heaven so rejoices over a 
recreant who returns to filial duty. And such 
joy suggests a very fearful contrast. A rescue 
in which Heaven takes such intense interest, 
must be a rescue from no ordinary evil and 
danger. God's own joy over a restored son, 
gives an awful hint of what it is to be astray 
from God. 

We are not, however, left to this hint to 
form an estimate of the evils of such an 
estrangement. In both the preceding para- 
bles — the lost sheep and the lost coin — the 
fact of- absence from God is illustrated, but 
not the character and extent of the loss which 
absence entails. That is brought out in the 
present parable. The secrets of the far coun- 
try are laid bare. We see how it fares with 
the son who forsakes his father. 

Here, then, is the true starting-point in this 



8 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

sad story of a youth turning his back on home 

and on fatherly love : an unfilial spirit — the 

spirit which separates man from his God. 

This spirit displayed itself in the younger 

Displayed in SOn IN HIS FALSE CONCEPTION OF 

Option of n " LIBERTY. If he had but known it, 
liberty. k e was mos {- truly free while living 

in obedience to his father; but liberty, with 
him, meant license, absence of restraint, and 
therefore disobedience. So men are constant- 
ly objecting to God's service that it restrains 
their liberty, not reflecting that license is 
bondage. The perfect harmony and free 
movement of the physical universe are se- 
cured, not only by the impulse which throws 
the various worlds off from the centre, but 
also by the attraction which holds them to the 
centre, and keeps each in its appointed orbit. 
Suspend law in human society, and let every 
man do that which is right in his own eyes, 
and the most awful scenes of tyranny which 
history depicts would be reproduced with 
tenfold horrors. So that God is applying no 
unfamiliar or arbitrary principle in subjecting 



THE YOUNGER SON. g 

man to law. His truth, indeed, makes free, 
but even the liberty which it confers obeys a 
law, for the man is blessed in his deed who con- 
tinued! in "the perfect law of liberty." And 
in the family circle this truth is most clearly 
apparent ; for who is more truly free, who has 
larger privileges, than a son who is lord of his 
father's heart and in sympathy with his fa- 
ther's aims ? 

The unfilial spirit was further apparent in 
If IS FALSE CONCEPTION OF HAPPINESS. In a fp]se 

No place should have been as pleas- £f nc happ£ 
ant to him as home; no society so ness ' 
grateful as that of a wise and loving parent. 
On the contrary, happiness lies for him in a 
far country, and in the society of harlots and 
rioters. 

The same spirit revealed itself in HIS con- 
ceit. Little doubt had he when he i nh i s con- 
asked for his portion of goods, that ceit ' 
more good was to be gotten out of it by hav- 
ing it in his own hands than by leaving it in 
his father's. He would be his own adminis- 
trator, using his possessions for his own ends, 



IO THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

without advice or dictation from any one. It is 
not an uncommon conceit among men. Theo- 
retically, few of them, perhaps, would be will- 
ing to admit that they would not be the better 
for Divine guidance; but, practically, how 
many men do we see whose powers are held 
subject to God's dictation ? How many who 
do not say, by their daily pursuits, by the use 
of their wealth, by the direction of their tal- 
ents, that they deem themselves competent to 
their own guidance ; that they hold their 
powers as their own; that they expect their 
possessions to turn them larger interest of 
happiness and prosperity in their own hands 
than in God's? Under the impulse of such a 
spirit, then, the young man turned his back 
upon father and home. It might seem as 
though the memories of the love which had 
followed him from his infancy, the many sug- 
gestions of fatherly care which met him at 
every step, would have touched him, and at 
least have delayed his departure; but he was 
in wild haste to be gone. He went, not many 
days after. He was afraid of any influence 



THE YOUNGER SON. H 

which might detain him; impatient of any 
remonstrance with his folly. He was blinded 
by that monstrous cheat, that there was some- 
thing better in the far-off land than father and 
home could give him ; that monstrous cheat 
which so many men have to thank for being 
in moral beggary to-day. 

Hovv forcibly is that delusion illustrated in 
that familiar picture — the second in the series 
of " The Voyage of Life." 

You remember the eager attitude of the 
youth, as he grasps the helm of the gay boat in 
which he is the only passenger. His eye is bent 
upon that gorgeous mirage of a palace in the 
distant clouds. How lovely is the shore he is 
quitting. How beautiful and peaceful the 
pastures and the trees. How winning the as- 
pect of the guardian spirit who stands, with a 
gesture of warning, close beside the parting 
boat. Alas ! the boy's back is toward the peace- 
ful pastures and his better angel, alike. He has 
no thought but for that castle in the clouds. 
Something better than God, better than son- 
ship, better than obedience, better than father- 



12 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

ly wisdom and love — that is the delusion which 
starts so many prodigals upon their career of 
sorrow. Could he not have been detained at 
home forcibly? No. Had that been attempt- 
ed, the story would be cited to-day in support 
of the claim for larger liberty under God's ad- 
No force ministration. A master might force 
k^ e p°hfm L°t a slave to remain in his house. He 
home. might hold him to duty by bonds or 

stripes; but a father cannot deal thus with a 
son. Better not to have him in his household 
at all, than to have him there as anything but 
a son. If he would go away, he must. And 
this is the way in which God often deals with 
obstinate men. A great deal of God's teach- 
ing is by experience. There are some things 
which men cannot learn so well in any other 
way. There are certain delusions so firmly 
built up — such perfect semblances of strength 
and security — that men will be convinced that 
they are delusions only by having them tum- 
ble on their heads and wound them in the ruin. 
So perhaps the prodigal can find out the charm 
and the hospitality of the far country only by 



THE YOUNGER SON !<3 

going thither. Travelers without number may 
come back with bitter' tidings ; they do not 
break the charm. Therefore God sometimes 
lets a man take the rein. He leaves him in 
great measure to himself; to make his own 
choices., to follow out his own devices, to be 
blown and tossed like a leaf by the blasts of 
passion, to have his fill of self: and if self 
prove a tyrant instead of an obedient servant, 
if the rough road of self-will so bruise his 
feet as to awaken longings for even the old re- 
straints of home, well. At any rate, God will 
force no man to serve Him. Remember this, 
ye who cry out against infringement of your 
liberty. God leaves you free. You can go 
away from Him if you will; you can stay 
away from Him if you will ; you can be an 
outcast. if you will. He will warn, entreat, 
remonstrate ; but you can be a son in His 
house only of your own free will. 

POOR ECONOMY. 
He went into a far country, and there lived 
nnsavingly. That is the literal mean- Life without 

guidance or 

mg of the words, "wasted his sub- restraint. 



H 



THE TWO PRODIGALS. 



stance in riotous living.' , He lived unsaving- 
ly — without economy. We lose something by 
limiting the meaning of that word u economy." 
We confine its meaning to saving or hoarding 
up ; whereas an economy is a rule of living ; 
the whole range of principles by which a man 
regulates his life; and, if he lives by no rule, 
of course he lives unsavingly, not only as re- 
spects money, but power, and time, and every- 
thing. An economy was just what this prodigal 
did not want. Every true economy involves 
direction and restraint. Restraint he was im- 
patient of, and cast off. Direction he took into 
his own hands. He began not only without a 
rule of life, but by hating rule and running away 
from it. Regarded merely as a pleasure-seeker, 
he was a fool. He did not get out of his property 
half the amount of mere sensual gratification 
which he would have done by observing an 
economy in his pleasures. There have been 
debauchees who have made themselves his- 
torical by their prudence in the midst of their 
pleasures. There have been men Who have 
known how to economize appetite so as to 



THE YOUNGER SON 



15 



heighten and prolong its gratification. If they 
had not a true economy of life, they had a kind 
of economy ; but cur prodigal spurned even 
this. He was lawless even in his pleasures, 
and ran to waste, of course. 

We may imagine how friends gathered 
round him, and flattered his vanity, and 
praised while they enjoyed his open-handed 
generosity. Nor need we imagine him sunk 
in gross dissipation. There is a good deal of 
truth in that picture by a modern French artist, 
which represents the youth as the centre of a 
circle of cultured dissipation. When Cult d 
a man brings knowledge and culture fq^n^a 11 
to bear in the interest of sensuality, ™£ ^ u- 
when he adds literary and aesthetic to allty - 
bodily sensuality, he runs to waste all the faster. 
And he who takes the conduct of his life out 
of God's hands has always enough to help him 
waste it. He does not remain in his own hands 
when he gets out of God's. There is no lack 
of influences adapted to get the partial or 
entire control of such natures. There are al- 
ways men enough to attach themselves to one 



1 6 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

of these spendthrift souls which are lavish, not 
only with money, but with affection and trust, 
and to turn every good-natured impulse into 
an instrument of ruin. So the prodigal had 
no trouble in running to waste. Prosperity 
unearned does not teach economy. One of 
the rewards of observing God's law that every 
true success shall be w T orked out or fought 
out is, that in the working and fighting, the man 
learns the value of his success and the way to 
husband it. The prodigal might have learned 
that lesson as a faithful son, assisting in the 
management of his father's estate ; but he had 
gotten his wealth unseasonably, without labor- 
ing for it, and ; like all such prosperity, it ran 
away with him. 

It was a short career. To run to waste is 
the right term. The portion of goods was 
quickly spent. His friends forsook him then, 
for sin seeks its own interest only. It is con- 
cerned with stripping its victim, not with 
pitying or helping him ; and so there was 
nothing for this proud young spendthrift but 
to go to keeping swine, and that at such mis- 



THE YOUNGER SON 



17 



erable wages that he sat hungry at his task, 
and was but too glad to share the meal of the 
beasts. Is there need to repeat the old, old 
lesson, that sin ends always and inevitably in 
degradation? If we will but read the deeper 
teaching of the parable, the degradation does 
not begin with the condition of acknowledged 
servitude. The tasteful dissipation and the 
swine-keeping are really of a piece. Both the 
gay rioters and the swine were in the far 
country; and that which embraces all the 
variations and the extremes of degradation 
is the going away from God, the refusing 
of the allegiance of a son. Really he was as 
degraded when he insolently claimed his por- 
tion of goods, as when he sat hungry among 
the swine. God does not encourage us to 
make the distinction between great and small 
sins, however it may exist. He fixes our at- 
tention on the fact that sin — sin as a 



principle, whatever its developments 



The pleas- 
ure and the 
degradation 

—is an ugly and a degrading thing, &SdS£i 
of one piece throughout. And when t0 § ether - 
a man decides to forsake God and to take up 



1 8 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

with sin, he must make up his mind to take 
sin as it is, the foul and disreputable part no 
less than the elegant and respectable part. 
He takes it all together. He cannot cull out 
the pleasures of sin and refuse its pains. He 
cannot choose its high places and decline its 
swine pastures. If he becomes an inhabitant 
of the far country, he must accept all the con- 
ditions of residence. 



WANT. 

He began to be in want. I know no picture 
in all literature which so terribly illustrates 
the conscious want of a wasted life, as this of 
the poor boy sitting among swine, and feeding 
upon the carob pods. And it is no fancy pic- 
ture. To all these wasted souls there come 
hours when their want consumes them, and 
when they confess it to themselves. Whether 
they come with the terrible physical conse- 
quences of unhallowed pleasure, with the 
wreck of manly strength, or with the disap- 
pointment of sinful ambitions, there do come 



THE YOUNGER SON. 1 9 

times when they ptow hungry for The cravings 

J ° ° J of a wasted 

the love they have thrown away, for hTe - 
thejoy of noble work which they have despised, 
and for the peace of innocence. Oh ! how 
that soul-hunger finds its way into the words 
of some of earth's most richly-endowed sons, 
breaking up like a bitter fountain through all 
their pride of intellect and through all their 
defiance of God. Hear poor Shelley, as he 
wanders on the beach at Naples : 

" Alas ! I have nor hope nor health, 
Nor peace within, nor calm around, 
Nor that content surpassing wealth 
The sage in meditation found, 
And walked with inward glory crowned, — - 
Nor fame, nor power, nor love, nor leisure. 
x x # * -* # 

Yet now despair itself is mild, 

Even as the winds and waters are ; 

I could lie down like a tired child, 

And weep away the life of care 

Which I have borne, and yet must bear, 

Till death, like sleep, might steal on me, 

And I might feel in the warm air 

My cheek grow cold, and hear the sea 

Breathe o'er my dying brain its last monotony." 



20 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

This, from the greatest master of English 
verse. He began to be in want. 

HE COMES TO HIMSELF. 
And from this point in the history of such a 
soul, there is usually either a quick, desperate 
plunge into complete ruin, or a struggle to 
recover the lost ground. The latter was the 
case with our prodigal. Home and fatherly 
love had not quite lost their power ; and as he 
sat there in his utter wretchedness, the mem- 
ory of the old days of peace and plenty came 
back upon him with power. "He came to 
himself y It is at once a delicate and a power- 
ful stroke of the Divine narrator to represent 
The delirium this prodigal career as a kind of mad- 
ness : a delirious dream, from which 
one wakes to find himself bruised and maimed 
by his frenzied freaks. He came to himself. It 
was not only that he saw himself ragged and 
filthy, not only that he w^as consumed with 
hunger; but these stern agents had dispelled 
the delusion which had blinded him, and had 
shown him his wretchedness as the legitimate 



THE YOUXGER SOX. 21 

result of his leaving his father's house. He 
was a beggar and an outcast ; but before all, 
and as the cause of all, he was a sinner. He 
would go home then, not as a hungry man 
asking for bread, but as a sinful son asking 
forgiveness. "I will say, not ' Father. I am 
hungry,' but ' Father, I have sinned against 
Heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy 
to be called thy son ; make me as one of thy 
hired servants/ ' The slavish spirit was not 
gone yet. He would understand better, by 
and by, the folly of the thought that he could 
ever be anything but a son in his father's house, 
or ever enjoy favor on any other ground than 
that of his father's free love and mercy. 

AND GOES STRAIGHT HOME. 

He arose and went to his father. He did 
not go to any other citizen of the far country 
to seek a new and better service. He aban- 
doned the far country and all its service 
entirely. He would not get bread or pardon 
by a change of service, any more than a sinful 
man will find relief from his remorse and hun- 



22 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

ger of heart, as many seek to do, by trying a 
new course of sin. Pardon and peace cannot 
be had in absence from God. They are wholly 
dependent upon sonship. Not only this or 
that fault must be abandoned; the whole 
economy of sin must be forsaken, and the man 
must go to his father. And here, too, we have 
illustrated the nature of a true sorrow for sin. 
The apostle, you remember, makes a distinc- 
sorrow and tioii between sorrow and repentance, 
Repentance. s ; nce ^q speaks of repentance as grow- 
ing out of sorrow. " A godly sorrow which 
worketh repentance. ,, The prodigal might 
have been sincerely sorry for his degradation, 
his rags, his hunger, and yet never have left 
the far country ; but when he arose and went 
to his father, that showed the real character 
of his sorrow. That was repentance. Mere 
sorrow, which weeps and sits still, is not re- 
pentance. Repentance is sorrow converted 
into action ; into a movement toward a new, 
better life. 



THE YOUXGER SOX. 



23 



IS THE WANDERER FORGOTTEN AT HOME? 

And what, meanwhile, of the father? Has 
he given up and forgotten his straying child? 

Oh ! father, you who, years ago, saw the door 
close upon that erring, headstrong son, tell 
me how well Christ interprets your own heart. 
Have you forgotten the wanderer ? Are there 
no scalding drops on your cheek in the dark 
nights ? Is there no burden of prayer on your 
heart in the closet and at the household altar ? 
Has not your ear grown wondrously sensitive 
to a strange step on the threshold, and do you 
ever hear one without a quickened pulse ? Is 
God less a father than you? Has He less 
interest in His straying ones ? Is Christ going 
to leave you here with the thought that the 
old fatherly tenderness lay dormant all through 
those sad days of riot and woe, only to be 
awakened by the prodigal's return ? Not such 
is the teaching of those words. " The Son of 
man is come to seek and to save that which is 
lost" " God commendeth His love toward us 
in that while we were yet sinners Christ died 



24 



THE TWO PRODIGALS. 



for us." Not such is the lesson of the shep- 
herd going out upon the mountains for the 
lost sheep, or of the woman sweeping for the 
lost piece of money. If there is any truth 
which the Bible pushes forward like a beacon, 
it is the truth of God's intense yearning over 
men who are yet in their sins. How was it 
that the eye of the father was watching so 
Divine love intently the road along which his child 
over n ks S chii- had gone ? What power had touched 
dren * his aged eyes, that, in the figure which 

toiled with bleeding feet over the stones, 
transformed by sorrow, emaciated with hun- 
ger, so different in his foul rags from the gay 
youth who had gone so gallantly away from his 
door, he recognized the son of his love ? Who 
but the veriest slave at heart — the elder son, 
for example — would have dared to challenge 
the impulse of fatherly love which sent that 
old man as on winged feet to meet his boy? 

We get through this parable, into the very 
heart of God. We go down to the very foun- 
dation of that wondrous economy of grace 
which runs through the Bible ; the fact, name- 



THE YOUXGER SOX. 



25 



h\ that man is God's child. Can you reason 
upon God's love for him ? Can you find in 
man, or in his doings, or in his circumstances, 
that which is adapted to draw out such riches 
of divine love ? Was there anything" in that 
prodigal who had trampled upon fatherly love, 
abused fatherly kindness, squandered fatherly 
gifts, who came back bankrupt, filthy, ragged, 
to throw himself upon fatherly compassion— 
anything to prompt that running to meet him, 
and that close embrace? Nothing, absolutely 
nothing in these. Every reason, on the con- 
trary, why he should have sent him back with 
reproaches to die in the far country. But 
under all was still the fact — he is my son : and 
no father needs any other explanation than 
this. It was enough that the boy was 
content /to be a son. He had thought that 
there was something better than this. The 
father desired nothing better than this. He 
knew there was no blessedness so great for 
the youth as to dwell obediently in his fathers 
house, and he desired no greater happiness 
for himself than to pour out upon the son 



2 6 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

of his love the riches of his fatherly tender- 
ness. 

HOME AT LAST. 

So the prodigal was at home again. Folded 
in his father's arms, the past was as if it had 
not been. There was a magnetism in that 
clasp which drove away the last vestige of the 
servile spirit from the prodigal's heart. He 
said : " I have sinned ; I am not worthy ;" but 
he forgot to say, " Make me a servant/' The 
father had now no thought but that of rejoic- 
ing. This was not the time to read homiliej 
on the son's ingratitude. My son is alive fron 
the dead. My son was lost and is found 
Awav with all thoughts of the death and of the 
loss. Enough of those in the far country* 
Let us think only of the life and of the recovery. 
My son is at home with a son's heart in him- 
It is not meet that my son should be in rags. 
The Robe Bring forth the best robe for him. 
and die gl ^ ^ s not mee t that my son should be 
Feast. a dishonored beggar. Am I not 

rich? May I not do what I will with mine 



i 



THE YOUNGER SOiV. 



27 



own? Put a ring on his finger. It is not 
meet that my son should be hungry. He 
shall feast as he never did in the far country. 
Bring forth the fatted calf and kill it. Ah! 
the richest feast that day was the father's after 
all. Home fare must have been sweet indeed 
to the hungry son, but no dainty could be so 
sweet as the sight of the son at the table to 
the father. It seems as if we could almost 
see the eager, hungry look of love with which 
he sat and watched him as he ate. 

If we were forced to surrender all but one 
portion of the Bible, and could choose our 
portion, our choice might safely rest on this 
Darable. "Where in the entire range The Para- 

' r . , . . ble contains 

01 human literature, sacred or pro- the central 

, . , r , . truth of 

ane, can anything be found so terse, scripture. 
so luminous, so full of infinite tenderness— so 
faithful in the picture which it furnishes of the 
consequences of sin, yet so merciful in the 
hope which it affords to amendment and 
penitence — as this little story? How does it 
summarise the consolations of religion and the 
sufferings of life ! All sin and punishment, 



28 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

all penitence and forgiveness, find their best 
delineation in these few brief words." * The 
whole gospel is in them ; and whatever may 
be the value of the other lessons of the Bible, 
it is dependent upon this, which is its central 
lesson. This is what we, with our sinful nat- 
ures, our experience of sin's hard fare, our 
craving for an eternal love, need first and 
most. Let us now gather up a few of the 
clear, salient, practical teachings of the story. 

PRACTICAL LESSONS. 

T. All sin has its root in absence from God. 
Man's true and normal relation to God is that 
of a son. As a son, recognizing the obliga- 
tions, claiming the privileges, discharging the 
duties, cultivating the affections of sonship, he 
is safe, happy, useful. To forsake this position 
is to enter upon the road to ruin, 

II. Absence front God results in zvaste of life, 
Man must live under some rule. God gives 
him a law which effects the best economy of 
power, and the most happy development of 

* Farrar — " Life of Christ." 



THE YOUNGER SON. 29 

talent; which brings out the best there is in 
him, and puts it to the highest uses ; which 
imposes such restraints as will keep power 
from wasting and innocence from corruption. 
If man refuses to believe this, if he thinks he 
can frame a better economy of life, he must 
try the experiment, but he will try it at his 
cost. He will live unsavingly, and wake from 
the excitement of his experiment, to the bitter 
consciousness of a want for which earth has 
no relief. 

III. Sin has a fearful power of delusion. It 
invests absence from God with a charm. It 
conceals the swine pasture behind the ban- 
queting chamber; it drowns the moans of 
hunger with the sound of the maddening 
revel. All this until it has gotten its victim 
in its power, and then it leaves him without 
pity to the swine, the husks, and the rags. 

IV. Sin honestly repented of is sure to meet 
with forgiveness* and the sinner with a most 
gracious reception. There is joy in heaven 
over one that repenteth. Aye, in heaven, be- 
cause there the value of sonship is fully known. 



30 



THE TWO PRODIGALS. 



There the power of sin's delusion is fully ap- 
preciated ; there the awful consequences of 
sin are seen in their dread extent ; and it may 
well be a joy, even to angels, when man breaks 
through such formidable delusions and ob- 
stacles and makes his way back to God and to 
sonship. 

Oh! wanderer from your Father's house,, 
come to yourself and see your danger. You 
are running a fearful risk. Read in this para- 
ble how he who begins by taking sin as a ser- 
vant, will find in it a terrible and cruel master. 
If you sit dabbling in the stream and toying 
with the little eddies, ere you know it the 
rapids will have you in their mighty sweep, 
and the precipice is just beyond. Rise up in 
God's strength. Rise up and break the spell 
which binds you. Rise up at the craving 
hunger which, will be satisfied with nothing 
but God. Rise, and turn your steps resolutely 
tow T ard home. There is nothing but love 
there for you. There is a Father there who 
longs for your return, who will heal your 
backslidings and crown you with the blessings 



THE YOUXGER SOX. ? >l 

of sonship ; and there, folded to His breast, 
seated at His table, your wanderings over, 
the far country left behind forever, you shall 
know what the apostle meant when he said, 
11 Behold what manner of love the Father hath 
bestowed on us that we should be called the 
sons of God." 



THE ELDER SON. 



THE ELDER SON. 

Now his elder son was in the field : and as he came and drew nigh to 
the house he heard musick and dancing. 

And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. 

And he said unto him, Thy brother is come ; and thy father hath killed 
the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 

And he was angry, and would not go in : therefore came his father out, 
and intreated him. 

And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve 
thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment : and yet thou 
never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends : 

But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living 
with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 

And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have 
is thine. 

It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad : for this thy 
brother was dead, and is alive again ; and was lost, and is found. Luke 
xv. 25-32. 

There are probably few Bible readers who 
have not entertained, if they have not uttered, 
the wish that the story of the prodigal son 
might have ended with his return to his fa- 
ther's house, and have left him happily seated at 
his father's table. Probably few have read this 
wonderful parable for the first time without 
feeling that it was marred by the added story 
of the elder son's behavior. This fact, to- 
gether with the disputes of commentators, has 

(35) 



36 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

led many readers to neglect this latter portion 
entirely. We ought never to indulge ill this 
way of reading the Bible. Not only does it 
tend to weaken our reverence for its author- 
ity, but we often lose by such a course a most 
valuable lesson, and one which is necessary to 
the complete understanding of the ponion 
which we read so admiringly. Christ never 
puts an object or a tint into any of His pictures 
which is not indispensable to the general ef- 
fect. If we miss the effect, it is because we 
are at the wrong point of view. Thus this 
crown and pearl of the parables cannot afford 
to lose a single feature. We read, in its first 
part, of human sin and folly, yet we may also 
need to be reminded that sin is not always 
clothed in rags, nor found among swine ; and 
that many a prodigal, quite as depraved as he 
who wasted his substance in the far country, 
may be found under the guise of a respectable 
and dutiful son. We read how Divine com- 
placency is called out by penitence. It may 
also do us good to know how it is not called 
out bv mechanical obedience. 



THE 'ELDER SOX. 37 



A SHARP CONTRAST. 

Let us have these two figures plainly before 
us, as they come successively to the father's 
door. Here is the ragged, beggarly prodi- 
gal, foul with the reek of the swine-yards; 

his substance wasted, gaunt and pale through 
his own wasteful folly. After him comes the 
elder son, fresh from the field where he has 
been serving the father ; the eminently re- 
spectable young man, who has never asked 
for his portion of goods, who has al- Vagabond- 

-, . T age, and 

ways remained at home. It is a good and 

. regular 

sharp contrast — vagabondage and standing. 
respectability, a bad name and good and 
regular standing, seedy profligacy and strict 
propriety. 

And. the returned beggar has the fatted 
calf, the robe, the shoes, the ring, the music 
and dancing. The elder brother might come 
home from the field a hundred times as he is 
doing in our picture, and the household would 
not be stirred like this. And he grumbled at 
it, and what is more, there were enough to 



38 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

justify him. Reproduce that same scene, as 
you could very easily in a hundred families, 
and give the elder son a chance to ventilate 
his grievance, and he would have no difficulty 
at all in finding sympathizers. He who had 
served and never transgressed, was it fair that 
he should never have even a kid to make 
merry with his friends ? Should all the fes- 
tivity be lavished on the vagabond? On the 
face of it, the elder son has rather a plausible 
case. We want to see whether it is any more 
than plausible. 

HAS HE A GOOD CASE? 

And, as a preliminary to a satisfactory an- 
swer, keep prominently before you the fact 
which is obvious to the most careless reader, 
that the whole action of the parable is con- 
fined to the family circle, and that all its moral 
lessons turn* upon the relation of father and 
son. Whatever sin is here pictured derives 
its peculiar quality from the fact of its being a 
sin against a father. Whatever penitence is 
displaj'ed is called out by the remembrance 



THE ELDER SOX. 



39 



of fatherly love insulted. Whatever forgive- 
ness is bestowed bears the stamp, not of ju- 
dicial clemency, but of parental tenderness. 
And in this characteristic of the parable lies 
the test by which we are to form our judg- 
ment of the character and behavior of the 
elder son, and of the justice of his complaint. 
The comparison between him and his The com , 
returning- brother turns upon one utm^on 
point — the development of a true filial {kVrf?*" 
spirit. Which of the two exhibited fili;is P iHt - 
it? And thus only the story in all its parts 
becomes a true parable of human relations to 
God. For man's proper and normal relation 
to God is that of a son, not of a servant ; and 
this truth is brought out in the first part of 
the parable very effectively and beautifully, in 
that the issue of the younger son's history is 
his restoration to not only the privileges of 
sonship, but to the spirit of sonship. For you 
will remember that when he was meditating 
a return to his home he communed thus with 
himself: " I will arise and go to my father. 
I will say, I have sinned. I am not worthy 



40 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

any more to be called a son ; make me as one 
of thy hired servants. I will make myself 
worthy by service/' And so he arose and 
went to his father, conning over this lesson by 
the way, and forgot it in the first clasp of his 
father's arms. " Father, I have sinned. Fa- 
ther, I am unworthy." It was meet that he 
should remember that part. But he never 
could have said " make me a hired servant " 
w T ith the tears falling like rain from the aged 
face, and the clasp of those feeble hands round 
his neck. The filial spirit came back to him 
on the instant, and through it he saw as in a 
flash that fatherly love was not conditioned 
upon worthiness ; that to his father he never 
could be a servant ; that such a suggestion 
would be an outrage upon parental love, and 
that the parent's deepest wish could be satis- 
fied only by his frank and full acceptance of 
the position of a son in a true spirit of son- 
ship. We have seen, therefore, how the 
younger son, the returned prodigal, did ac- 
cept this position in this spirit; and because 
of this we leave him seated at the table, clad 



THE ELDER SON. 



41 



in the best robe, the centre of household joy 
and festivity. 

A SUSPICIOUS SON. 

Look now at the elder brother tried by this 
test. And first you will observe the peculiarly 
unfilial, suspicious spirit of the man. An 
older, trusted son, ever with his father, one 
would thiiik that nothing could go on in the 
household from which he could think him- 
self excluded. A true son's instinct would 
have said, " If there is any special joy in the 
house I must be concerned in it. It is some- 
thing for me to rejoice oyer;" and when he 
heard the sounds of revelry he would have 
quickened his step, and have made his way to 
the heart of the festivity to find out its cause 
and intent. Not so this honored and trusted 
son. " What, a revel going on in my father's 
house, and I not present ! I, ignorant of the 
cause ! Something in progress here which I 
have had no hand in! What does this fore- 
bode to my standing and dignity ? What secret 
grudge of my father against me does this 
indicate?" "" — "" 



42 



THE TWO PRODIGALS. 



Outside the And so he stands outside, and calls a 
wk°ha al s k enS servant and confers with him. This 
ant> is always the attitude of the unfilial 

spirit toward God in Christ Jesus. It seeks 
its impressions of the Heavenly Kingdom 
from the outside, from hangers about the 
door, from critics — any way, rather than by 
going in and learning from the Father him- 
self. It is with the household of faith just as 
it is with any other household. How much 
value would you attach to the report of a 
man's family life from one who had watched 
it only through the windows, or by peep- 
ing through a half-open door? Why, one 
who should gather his information in this 
way, might easily find cause to represent your 
house as a hell instead of an earthly paradise. 
Scores of movements and gestures seen with- 
out hearing the words which explained them 
to those within, hundreds of words heard out 
of their proper connection, and without see- 
ing the looks of love which passed from father 
to child, or from brother to sister, would con- 
vey an utterly false impression. The house- 



THE ELDER SON. 43 

hold of faith can be understood only from the 
inside. No one ever knows as a father the 
man to whom he is only a servant, or a looker- 
on. " Xo man knoweth the father but the 
son, and he to whom the son shall reveal 
him " by making him a son. You may see 
this in this very story. The servant who 
came out to talk with this elder son had not S 
at all penetrated to the secret of the father's * 
joy. All he knew was that a long-absent son 
had come back alive, and that the father was 
glad that he was not dead, and had ordered 
him to kill a fat calf. Of the moral elements 
of the case, those which gave all the intensity 
to the rejoicing, of the father's agony over 
moral wreck, of the father's joy over restored 
filial love and loyalty, the menial knew as 
little as he who was questioning him. 

AN INSOLENT SON. 

But little as that was, it was quite enough 
to anger the questioner ; and even the father 
does not escape his anger. The father, you 
notice, is true to his character throughout. 



44 



THE TWO PRODIGALS. 



\ 



\ 



He is alike the father to both sons; as tender 

and considerate in the one case as in the other. 

He comes out to meet the angry son just as 

he ran to meet the prodigal. He does not 

send a servant, but appeals in person, just as, 

oh, wonder of wonders, the Father in heaven 

does to His recreant, rebellious, complaining 

sons, seeking to win them back to filial love, 

and saying to the rebel whom He would be 

justified in crushing, " Come, and let us reason 

He com- together." And now hear the com- 
plains of a 1 . T . . . r r t i 

good father, plaint. Listen to this pattern of filial 
docility and affection. " Lo, these years do I 
serve thee. I never transgressed thy com- 
mand, and yet I never had from thee even a 
kid to make merry with my friends; but as 
soon as this thy son is come, who has devoured 
thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for 
him the fatted calf/' There are no more fear- 
ful sarcasms in the Bible than the words in 
which men unconsciously portray their own 
characters. Few better subjects for contempt 
are afforded than the picture which this elder 
son paints of himself in these few sentences. 



THE ELDER SO.V. 



45 



Look, for instance, at the outrageous lack cf 
all modesty in the man. Had his father had 
no right to his service and fidelity while the 
son had been living in his house and eating 
his bread? Was his service something to be 
paraded as a meritorious and voluntary con- 
cession which he had been at perfect liberty 
to withhold? Is it indeed a thing for my 
children or yours to boast of, that they have 
been dutiful and affectionate sons and daugh- 
ters? Could they be any less, and be worthy 
of the name at all? 

A SLAVISH SON. 

Is it a son, then, who utters these words? 
No, indeed ! The words themselves prove 
him to be no son in the true sense of that 
term. "All these years do I serve thee, and I 
have not received so much as a kid for my 
service." All these years he had been living 
on the terms of a servant. This is the way in 
which that slavish soul sums up all those 
years of fatherly trust, and fatherly care, and 



46 THE TWO PRODIGALS, 

pleasant domestic intercourse, and confiden- 
tial sharing in the father's plans and labors. 
He has had "All these years have I served, and 

no kid for . 

wages. have not had a kid for it. The 

younger son, the prodigal, could not find it in 
his heart to utter the words, " Make me as 
one of thy hired servants." The elder son 
coarsely asserts that he is a servant, and com- 
plains that he has been cheated of his wages. 
He sneers at the brother who asked for his 
^ portion of goods. He is doing the very same 
thing. The younger wanted his portion, that 
he might go and use and enjoy it away from 
his father. The elder reveals the self-same- 
spirit. All things were his freely to enjoy in 
his father's house, and with his father; but he 
grumbles because he could not make merry 
with his own friends ; because he has not had 
V something to himself. And it was a hypo- 
crite's grumbling after all. No danger of 
that mean, slavish spirit ever erring in ex- 
travagant hospitality. His friends would have 
waited long for an invitation to a feast of his 
making. Never a kid had been given. Had 



THE ELDER SON. 



47 



he ever asked it? Would such a father have 
been likely to refuse the best of the herd to 
an honored, beloved son ? No one will draw a 
wrong inference from these words who shall 
keep in mind the key-thought of the parable, 
the filial spirit as God's test of character. 
Service was due the father. The son could 
not love him and not serve him. The re- y 
turned prodigal was not to be made a servant, 
but he would serve none the less. Service is 
bound up with filial love. " If a man love me, 
he will keep my words." The point is, that no 
service is valuable in God's eyes which does 
not grow out of filial love. The gospel rec- 
ognizes no service for wages except the serv- V 
ice of sin, whose wages is death. It calls for 
the love which freely lays all powers and 
faculties and resources at the Father's feet, 
and says : " My meat is to do the will of Him 
that sent me, and to finish His work." What 
a son receives from a father is not of the 
nature of wages, but of free gift; not of re- 
ward, but of grace ; and he who acts upon 
any other principle insists upon changing 



\ 



48 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

the household of God into a barrack of 
slaves. 

AN UNTRUTHFUL SON. 

But had he received nothing? Not a kid 
for his friends; but was this the utmost he 
had to ask? Was there no other gift to be 
named with this little sensual gratification ? 
Study the father's answer, and see that you 
put the emphasis in the right place. It is not, 
" Son, thou art ever with me, while thy 
brother has gone away from me," but " Son, 
thou art ever with me." Is it for thee to talk of 
having had nothing, when thou hast had me?\\ 
He had had these years, and with me all things 

«// things in , • -) CM 11 

his Father, that are mine? Shall a man com- 
plain of lack of money in his purse when the 
door of the exchequer is open to him ? Shall 
he mourn over a dry cistern when the reser- 
voir is close by his door? Is it for man to 
talk of receiving reward and wages from 
God, when, the very moment he becomes a 
son of God, he is greeted with, "All things 
are yours — ask and ye shall receive ? " Shall 



THE ELDER SOX. 49 

a son murmur about gilts, when the giver of 
every perfect gift says to him: " Thou art 
ever with me, and all that I have is thine — my 
presence, my wisdom, my sympathy, my 
strength, my counsel. I am thine, thy father ; 
and if thou dost abide in me and my words in 
thee, thou shalt ask what thou wilt, and it 
shall be done." What vestige of the spirit of 
a son can be in him who, with such a father, 
insults him, and complains of the want of a 
kid? 

AN UNFAITHFUL SON, 

But what of this claim of faithful service? 
Will it stand? "These years I serve thee, 
and never have I transgressed. " It is much 
to say, even for a loving son. Remember, 
once more, we are trying him by a filial, not 
by a judicial, test. The question is already 
answered. He had violated the very He had 

r , . . r , 1 failed in ser- 

nrst condition 01 a sons service by vice. 
putting himself on the footing of a servant. 
Whatever he might be able to say as a serv- 
ant, he could not say as a son, " These years 



5o 



THE TWO PRODIGALS. 



have I served thee without transgressing." 
v i The very marrow and essence of service was 
wanting. The vilest of trangressions against 
fatherly affection and confidence lay at his 
door. He had never transgressed ! Yet 
what was this stab at his father's heart ; this 
coarse imputation upon his father's affection 
and justice ; this vile abuse of him over whom 
his father was rejoicing? Take the matter 
home. Do you know of anything that would 
grieve you more than to have one of your 
children hate another? To your own fatherly 
instinct such hatred is unnatural and horrible ; 
and your instinct in this is only a reflection 
of God's feeling, embodied in His gospel, 
which refuses to separate the fraternal spirit 
from the filial, and insists that he who loves 
God shall love his brother also. See the 
mean, pampered wretch as he stands at the 
father's door, and learns from a menial that 
his brother has returned. The very word 
"brother" maddens him. He will not accept 
the word. " This thy son is come who hath 
devoured thy living." What bitterness and 



THE ELDER SON. 5 I 

venom in the words. " He may be A bad bro . 
thy son, since thou art weak enough ther * 
to receive and feast him, but he is no brother 
to me, who have served thee all these years, 
and never transgressed thy commandment. 
This thy son ! A fine son, forsooth ; a worthy 
bearer of thy name." The poor, narrow soul, 
after all his experience of fatherly regard, 
could not understand how sonship could rest 
on any other basis than service, service for 
wages ; and the son who had failed of service 
had surely no rightful place at the table, and 
no claim to the robe and ring. Alas, alas! it 
is a picture of the world's justice ; it uncovers 
the serpent at the root of all mere legal 
righteousness. " This world will not believe a 
man repents," and if it did, what then ? 
What is penitence ? What are abandoned 
sins ? What are changed affections, so long 
as a debt remains unpaid, a service unren- 
dered ? David's instinct was truthful which 
prompted the words : " Let me fall now into 
the hands of the Lord, for very great are His 
mercies, but let me not fall into the hands of 



52 



THE TWO PRODIGALS. 



men/' Thanks be to God that human peni- 
tence has a Father to go to. Thanks be to 
God that a sinner is tried by a Father's heart ; 
for it would go hard indeed with him, were he 
forced to make good his wasted portion, or to 
x pay his way through servitude back to son- 
ship. 

A FAITHFUL FATHER. 

Yet observe how, through all, the father 
remains constant to his fatherhood. Through 
all his kindness and consideration for the 
elder, angry brother, there is no surrender of 
this. The Father says : " We ought to rejoice. 
The brother has come home." He will not 
concede the right of the elder to refuse the 
tie of brotherhood. " He was lost, he was 
dead, but he has returned, and he is still thy 
brother. We ought to rejoice. He has come 
in rags, I know ; from vile haunts and com- 
panions, I know. He has spent his substance, 
I know. He has been a keeper of swine, I 
know. But he has come home: come home 
with penitence and confession, and it is meet 



THE ELDER SON. 



53 



that we make merry. I have him safe and 
sound, not only in body, but in the higher, 
clearer, better sense : safe in sin forgiven, in 
sonship sought and found ; my son, more 
truly now that he is at my table in borrowed 
robes and without a penny, than when he 
went from my door in the pride and gaiety 
of his new riches." 

WHY THIS STORY WAS ADDED. 

And now can we not see why this unpleasant 
story was added to the one which has become 
so familiar and so dear to us all ? Was it not as 
necessary as the first part to show us in what 
alienation from God consists, and on what 
restoration to His favor depends? Perhaps 
if we had had only the first part, we should 
have gotten an imperfect, one-sided concep- 
tion of what it is to be a prodigal. Sin against 
our father, as revealed in flying to a far country 
and wasting the substance in riot, it is eas) r 
enough to understand ; but there is another 
phase of it, outwardly more respectable, more 
subtle, more dangerous, because wearing the 



54 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

livery of fidelity and virtue, against which we 
need a special caution. Christ shows us here 
Christ's test that His test of character goes deeper 
dee C p h er r tha e n t ' ian ours I that His estimate is based 
man's. upon the presence or absence of a 

true filial-spirit. And in the graphic picture 
which He here draws for us, we see that while 
penitent, filial love may come to its father's 
house in rags and filth, the real prodigal may 
wear the guise of a faithful son. Outward 
conformity to the rule may cover the spirit 
\of a slave; and prodigality in tears, asking for 
nothing but fatherly forgiveness and love, is 
infinitely dearer to God than the querulous, 
conceited righteousness which says, u These 
many years do I serve thee, neither trans- 
gressed I at any time thy commandment.' 

TWO PRODIGALS. 

How marvelously the characters shift in 
this narrative as we get hold of its key. The 
father knows whom to place at the table and 
to clothe with the best robe. We find a 
prodigal son at the end of the story as at the 



THE ELDER SG.V. 



55 



beginning; but it is not the same son. The 
true son is the returned swineherd. The real 
The prodigal is the respectable elder swineherd - 
brother. There at his father's door, stealthily 
communing with a servant, in his cold unduti- 
fulness, his bloodless brutality, his sneering 
selfishness — he is far fitter for the swineherd's 
place than he at whom he sneers. How is he 
better? Did the younger ask for his portion 
of goods? The elder grumbles because he 
has not had a kid. Did the younger go into a 
far country? Leagues could not put such a 
space between the elder and his father as the 
ingratitude and envy of a trusted and beloved 
child. Had the younger been in want? His 
sorest need was riches compared with the 
elder son's unconscious beggary of all that 
goes to the making of a true and noble life. 
Had the younger wasted his substance? Riot 
with spendthrifts was economy to the unfeel- 
ing and uncalculating folly which could 
trample under foot parental confidence and 
jeer at parental tenderness. Had the younger 
been a servant to strangers? The elder had 



56 THE TWO PRODIGALS. 

confessed himself such in his own father's 
house. 

THE PARABLE REALIZED. 

How this story was repeated over and 
over again in the actual experience of Christ 
when on earth, and is daily repeated in the 
society of the present day. This spectacle of 
beggared outcasts at the table became a 
familiar one in the three years of His earthly 
ministry. " Your Master eateth with publicans 
and sinners/' grew into one of the staple 
charges against the Son of man. The Phari- 
sees, self-secure in their legal righteousness, 
knew not what it meant; but Zaccheus knew, 
when those Divine lips said, " This da)' is sal- 
vation come to this house." She whom the 
cruel hierarchs would fain have stoned, knew, 
when she groveled in bitter remorse at His 
feet, and heard Him say, " Neither do 1 con- 
demn thee, go and sin no more;" and that 
other, her sister in sin, learned the same 
blessed lesson, as her tears fell fast upon His 
feet, and the keen rebuke to the arrogant 



THE ELDER SON. 



57 



Simon was ended with a word of tender love 
and abiding comfort to her. And the reproach 
so often hurled at Him, is to-day the dearest 
of all truths to a weary, sin-sick world, the 
only beacon-light which the night of penitent 
tears and the gathering blackness of remorse 
can never hide — " This man receiveth sin- 
ners ! " The tear of one truly repentant sin- 
ner is dearer to God than the loveless and 
fruitless formalism of a thousand Pharisees. 
Penitence can bring the very harlot and 
publican into closer communion with their 
Maker, than the combined offerings of a thou- 
sand vapid and respectable hypocrisies. 

THE LESSON. 

The practical lesson of the story is very 
plain, very direct, very searching. The para- 
ble goes out like an inquisitor, asking, " Who 
is this prodigal among you?" And it may 
point its finger meaningly at more than one 
who is complacently congratulating himself 
on the contrast presented by his respectable 
standing and his brother's rags and filth. Oh, 



58 



THE TWO PRODIGALS. 



dear friend, precious immortal soul, do not 
shrink from the pointed finger, if it chance to 
be aimed at you. The answer to that question 
is vital; the alternative it presents is sonship 
or slavery; the warmth and joy of home, or 
the far country; and the test to which God 
puts you is simple and easily applied. The 
only footing on which you can be received 
into His family is that of sonship — sonship 
reached through penitence for sin, and the 
consecration of all your love and power to 
your Father in heaven; by your simple con- 
sent to give yourself up to His fatherly guid- 
ance, to receive your gifts from His hand, to 
hold all your honors at His disposal, and to 
receive all your possessions through His free 
grace, and not as rewards of your merit. In 
any other relation than this, I must say it 
plainly, your place is with the, elder son. If 
you are counting on God's favor as reward of 
merit ; if you are congratulating yourself on 
the strictness with which you have kept His 
words ; if you have any feeling that anything 
in you has established a claim to even so much 



THE ELDER SON. 59 

as the smallest kid from your Fathers flock, 
you are with the elder son at the door, saying, 
''These man}' years do I serve thee, neither 
at any time transgressed I thy command- 
ment." Outward conformity to God's law 
gives you no place at His table. You have 
not shown even outward conformity. The 
thing which God asks of you, and the only 
thing, is the spirit of a son, the love of a son, 
the obedience of a son. And, oh, remember 
that if this be in you, the Father knows His 
child under all the disfigurements of sin. You 
cannot have gone so far away, you cannot 
have wasted so much substance, you cannot 
have defiled yourself so fearfully, but that 
when you shall come back with your heart full 
of longing for a Father's love and a son's 
place, the table will be spread for you, and 
there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner 
that repenteth, more than over ninety and 
nine just persons who need no repentance. 



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CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES 



MODERN Scepticism. 
Lectures delivered in connection with the Christian 
Evidence Society, and designed to meet current 
forms of unbelief among the educated classes. By 
the Rev. George Rawlinson, the Lord Bishop of 
Carlisle, and others. i2mo, cloth. . . 2 5c 

These Lectures are able and timely ; they are popular in style ; aud 
yet thorough and scholarly. — Herald and Presbyter. 

PHILOSOPHY of Natural Theology (The). 
An Essay in confutation of the Scepticism of the 
present day, which obtained a prize at Oxford, 
November 26, 1872. By William Jackson, M.A., 
F.S.A. Svo, cloth. . . . . 3 00 

Tnere is no reader, however learned, who will not find himself 
strengthened and informed by a study of this work, and he will be 
as much pleased with its remarkable suggestiveness, as with its 
keen analysis and general ability. — The Interior. 

POPULAR Objections to Revealed Truth. 

Considered in a Series of Lectures delivered in the 
New Hall of Science, Old Street, City Road, under 
the auspices of The Christian Evidence Society, 
1873. i2mo . . . . . 1 75 

The reasoning is strong, well-defined, and goes straight to a conclu- 
sion .vith irresistible effect, so that the most moderate intellect can 
undersland it, and the most careless will be attracted by it. — New 
York Tr'jties. 



CULTURE and the Gospel ; or, 
m A Plea for the Sufficiency of the Gospel, to Meet 
the Wants of an Enlightened Age. By the Rev. 
S. McCall. 161110, cloth . . „ 75 

The volume, though small in size, is very rich and suggestive in 
thought, and of more value than many volumes of much larger 
size and greater pretensions. — Quarterly Review, 

CA UT IONS for Doubters. 
By the Rev. J. H. Titcomb, M.A. i6mo, cloth . 1 25 

A safe, judicious book to put in the hands of those vrho are really 
perplexed and distressed by doubts. — Presbyterian. 

STRIVINGS for the Faith. 

The Fourth Series of Lectures delivered under 
the auspices of the Christian Evidence Society, 
nmo, cloth . . . . . 1 50 

A useful and practical contribution to the literature of belief — as 
against that of unbelief; and at the same time is a valuable contri- 
bution to literature at large.— Christian Intelligencer, 

SENSUALISTIG Philosophy of the Nineteenth 
Century ( The). Considered by Robert L. Dabney, 
D.D. Svo, cloth . . . . . 2 00 

FAITH and Free Thought, 

Being a Second Course of Lectures on Modern 
Scepticism, delivered before the Christian Evidence 
Society. i2mo, cloth . . . . 2 50 

The book will prove a treasure to any thoughtful student, of the 
present phase of the conflict between truth and error.— Watchman 
and Reflector. 

+% Any of the above sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt 
p r ice. 

ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & CO., 

770 Broadway, New York. 



PRACTICAL RELIGIOUS BOOKS. 



WALKING with God. 
The Life Hid with Christ. By S. Irenaeus Prime, 
D.D. 24mo. Cloth, gilt, . . .60 cents. 

Cloth, limp, 40 " 

Paper, 25 " 

44 It is one of the best, wisest, healthiest religious books I have 
ever seen," 

41 It is full of helpful and comforting thoughts." 

URBANE and his Friends, 
By Mrs. E. Prentiss. Author of " Stepping Heav- 
enward/' etc. i2mo. Cloth, . . . , 1 50 

Urbane* is the name of an earnest Christian Minister, who gathers 
about him a few chosen friends, to talk about religion. The differ- 
ent topics are discussed colloquially, and the reader is held as a 
spectator during the progress of the discussion, which embraces 
all the topics upon which a Christian Minister, anxious to benefit 
his flock, would be likely to call up for conversation. * * * We 
commend the book to those who wish to know more of 44 The 
Way," and how better to walk therein. — A Ibany Evening 
Journal. 

PLAIN Words to a Young Communicant. 
By Rev. James W. Alexander, D.D. i8mo. 
Cloth, ; . 40 cents. 

This little book has its origin in a desire to furnish candidates for 
Church Communion, and young disciples who have already taken 
the first step, with advices somewhat more full than can, in ordi- 
nary cases, be given orally to individuals by their pastors. 

VO W Assumed ( The). 
Counsels for a Young Christian. By the Rev. Ste- 
phen H. Tyng, Sr., D.D. Edition for general cir- 
culation. 321110. Cloth, . . . .20 cents, 



SOUL'S Inquiries (The). 

In the words of Scripture. Arranged by G. Wash- 
ington Moon. Introduction by Theodore L. Cuy- 
ler. Sq. 321710. Cloth, .... 25 cents. 

CONCORDANCE (A) to the Old and New Testaments. 
or, a dictionary and alphabetical index to the 
Bible. By Alexander Cruden. i2mo. Cloth, . 1 75 

This edition can be commended for its clear type and pleasant 
page. 

SCRIPTURE Harmony. 

Hand-book for Devotional Students of the Scrip- 
tures. i2mo, 60 cents. 

Will be very valuable to all students of the Bible. * * * It is one of 
those books that every reader of the Bible would like to have 
always at hand for reference, — N. Y. Observer* 

PHILIPS' Scripture Atlas. 

12 Maps, Colored. By William Hughes, F.R.G.S. 
i8mo, paper, 25 cents. 

Small enough to be put in a side pocket ; it is an invaluable refer- 
ence for those who are studying a history and geography of the 
Bible, and, indeed, is indispensable to those who are teaching or 
studying. — Christian Intelligencer. 

ANSpN D. F. RANDOLPH & CO., Publishers, 

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A. D. F. R. & Co., in addition to their own publications 
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(< Fitted to give much needed light 'o many- 
The Presbyterian, 



PRAY FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT, By the Rev. 
Wm. Scribner. Note by W. G. T. Shedd, D.D. 

The Central Presbyterian says of the book ! ll In these days of 
doubt, it is well to have such fundamental doctrines set forth 
so earnestly, so scripturally, and so simply, as the author here 
does. There is great plainness of style, a lack, perhaps, as has 
been intimated, of mere ornament ; but a wonderful directness 
and spirituality that reminds one of Owen Edwards, and others." 

The editor of The Evangelist writes : " If this book did nothing else 
than to bring before the minds of believers, in their succession, 
the objects included in the general prayer for the Holy Spirit, 
and the reasons for such prayer, it would be of inestimable ser- 
vice. No one can read it without feeling more distinctly how 
great the necessity is, and without having a more specific form 
and direction given to his own prayer." 

The Independent describes it: *'A thoughtful, earnest, and deeply 
reverent treatise." 



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x- Historic Origin of the Bible. 

BOOK of Principal Facts, from the best 
German and English. In thre< 
mplete in One Volume. Part I- The 
Part //.—The New^Testamem 
—The Old Testament. With Appendices : 
lions on Revision. II— On the 
By -Rev. Edward Con.e Bissell, A.M. 
duction by Proft :Roswell:D. Hrr ch- 
.of -the Union: Theological Semi . 
vol., Wiall Syo, 4SSm^^' 
omtheBe^W^ 

irnis me in i . fanned from a cursory 

"fhe manuscript, of thereat Value and^merit| of the bo^k. 

•'vide field -much, of it hitherto accessible only to scholars,- 

resi arid importance to every reader of thebenptu res. 

by the intelligent Christian public, by answer- 

' ■' ' (actorymanner, a multitude of questions which they 

. ns of answering. At the same time, therejisso 

iighness, patience, and conscientiousness ; in the in- 

d treatment ofltne subject, that ' the book^^itled to a 

btitWSfot educated men. mincers and teblral schol- 

rl^seJS^ only to. ascertain the.tru ^ not to establish a 

:ort a'tiadliio.n. , ' 

I ANSQtt Dv F.RANDOL?li &. CO., 

770 Broadway, cor. 9th Street, N: Y 




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